How Do the Unawareness Set and Order Effects Influence Consumer Regret?

Prior research on regret has assumed a consideration set of only two-alternatives. The authors have relaxed that assumption and have developed hypotheses to examine the influence of the unawareness set and order effects in the measurement of consumer regret in a post-purchase evaluation. The results demonstrated that the brands consumers were previously unaware of, do indeed influence consumer regret, especially in a post-purchase upward comparison situation (comparing to superior unknown brands); this was not the case in a post-purchase downward comparison situation (comparing to inferior unknown brands). Order effects were also found to moderate consumer regret.

Citation:

Chien-Huang Lin, Wen-Hsien Huang, and Liang Kuai (2006) ,"How Do the Unawareness Set and Order Effects Influence Consumer Regret?", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Margaret Craig Lees, Teresa Davis, and Gary Gregory, Sydney, Australia : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 312-313.